J. Heat Treat. (1987) 5:21-25 9 1987 Springer-Verlag New York Inc.

Heat Treatment Effects on the

Mechanical Behavior and "Tearing
Slope" of A S T M A588 Steel
J.B. Terrell, T.S. Sudarshan, and K.L. Rohr

Abstract. ASTM A588 Grade B steel is currently being evaluated by some structural
steel users as a replacement for ASTM A6, A514, and A519 due to the shortage of such
steels from U.S. suppliers. In this study, heat treatment effects on the tensile and impact
properties showed that optimum mechanical behavior was exhibited when the steels were
quenched and tempered. Instrumented impact measurements allowed the calculation of a new
parameter designated as initial ~tearing slope." This parameter is postulated to be a measure
of the degree of multiple crack initiation in the material.

INTRODUCTION strength structural shapes and sizes was adversely af-

The need for a structural steel having enhanced impact
and mechanical properties superior to standard strength
plain carbon structural steel (such as ASTM A36) has
historically led domestic steel manufacturers to pro-
vide the construction industry with such high strength
products. Some of these high strength structural steels
have included ASTM A6, ASTM A514, and ASTM
A517. The yield strengths of these steels ranged from
70 ksi to 100 ksi with elongations better than 19%.
These steels usually contained sufficient levels of car-
bon (0.12-0.20%) and sufficient amounts of chro-
mium, and molybdenum or vanadium so that their su-
perior properties could be obtained by means of
quenching and tempering structural shapes after roll-
ing.
Many applications for these constructional steels
include outdoor structures such as bridges, towers,
buildings, and heavy outdoor machinery. This high
volume usage has allowed the construction company
to buy mill runs (usually 40 tons) of each required
size. Accordingly, steel manufacturers provided such
a bountiful supply of shapes and sizes that many smaller
volume users found it easy to obtain small quantities
of high strength quenched and tempered steels from
warehouses. However, the availability of many high
J.B. Terrellis with Materials EngineeringAssociates, Lanham,
MD 20706. T.S. Sudarshan is with Materials Modification Inc.,
Falls Church, VA 22044 and K.L. Rohr is with the Department of
Materials Engineering of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute,
Blacksburg, VA 24061.
fected by the turbulent state of the domestic steel in-
dustry. The crunch from cheaper foreign imports, steel
industry strikes, and the failure of many U.S. corpo-
rations caused many domestic steel mills to cease pro-
duction. The end result is that the small users of these
steels faced shortages. Some smaller companies found
it necessary to procure new supplies of high strength
steel in the sizes and quantities needed.
Such was the impetus which prompted the me-
chanical testing of quenched and tempered ASTM A
588 Grade B steel. The logic behind this testing was
that:
1. A588 structural shapes are readily available from
any steel warehouse in any quantity in the as-rolled
condition.
2. The chemical composition for A588 contains suf-
ficient carbon, chromium, and vanadium so that
heat treatment could yield a microstructure having
enhanced mechanical properties and improved low
temperature impact properties.
3. The presence of copper in A588 helps provide im-
proved atmospheric corrosion resistance over that
of plain carbon structural steel.
4. A588 is readily weldable using conventional pro-
cesses.
Being normally supplied in the as-rolled condition,
A588 steel plates were quenched and tempered at var-
ious temperatures. Tensile and Charpy impact speci-

J. Heat Treating, Vol. 5, No. 1, 1987 9 21

Terrell et al. 9 H e a t T r e a t m e n t Effects o n A S T M A 5 8 8
mens were prepared and tested. An instrumented im-
pact tester was used for the impact studies because it
facilitates recording of the entire impact event from
fracture initiation to final rupture and also provides
features which can be used to analyze dynamic frac-
ture behavior of materials. From these traces a new
parameter, termed the "tearing slope," was extracted
for the A588 steels. The "tearing slope" is merely a
representation of the rapid drop in load accompanying
the growth of the crack after initiation has occurred.
EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE
The material used in this investigation was ASTM
A588 Grade B hot rolled 5/s in. plate. The composition
of the plate is listed in Table I. Four different sets of
tensile and impact specimens were used in this study;
the tensile specimens were oriented in the direction
parallel to rolling while the impact specimens were
oriented such that the notch extended parallel to the
direction of rolling. The tensile specimens were ma-
chined to dimensions specified in ASTM E 370, while
the Charpy impact specimens were machined to di-
mensions specified in ASTM E 23-82, Type A. One
set of specimens was machined from the as-received
plate while three other sets of specimens were pre-
pared after hardening (austenize at 1550~ oil quench
at 150~ and tempering the three plates at 500~
650~ and 800~ respectively. Typical microstruc-
tures for the four different treatments are shOwn in
Figure 1 (a) through (d). All tensile tests were per-
formed on a screw driven machine at a crosshead speed
of 0.05 in/min at room temperature. Impact tests were
performed at various temperatures using an instru-
mented tup which provided load/time 0dps/msec) and
energy/time (ft-lb/sec) traces that were examined and
photographed. Selected samples were examined using
scanning electron microscopy so as to characterize the
fracture surfaces.
Table I. Composition of ASTM A588 Grade B Hot
Rolled Plate
C 0.13%
Mn 1.29%
Ni 0.31%
Cr 0.60%
S 0.006%
P 0.010%
V 0.07%
Si 0.42%
Cu 0.31%
22 9 J. Heat Treating, Vol. 5, No. 1, 1987
RESULTS
The as-received plate was typically composed of free
ferrite and bainite. The grain size varied between ASTM
No. 4 - N o . 6 [Fig. l(a)]. The quenched and tempered
microstructures primarily consisted of free bainite with
small amounts of free ferrite. The grain size was con-
siderably smaller than ASTM No. 8 [Fig. l(b)-(d)].
The tensile studies showed that the hardness, yield
strength, ultimate strength, elongation to failure, and
reduction in area were affected by tempering when
compared to the as=received material. All the prop-
erties were a function of the tempering temperature
(Fig. 2). The significant observations were:
1. With an increase in tempering temperature, the yield
strength was observed to be higher than the hot rolled
plate and could be attributed to the formation of a
fine equiaxed structure. The ultimate strength,
however, dropped with increasing tempering tem-
peratures.
2. An increase in the tempering temperature resulted
in marginal changes in the hardness values, and the
reduction in area continued to show a gradual in-
crease.
The impact studies also showed that the properties
were a function of the tempering temperature. A typ-
ical load/time (kip/msec) trace and energy/time trace
is shown in Figure 3. The data obtained from these
traces were the total energy absorbed and the initial
"tearing slope" for specimen fracture. A schematic il-
lustration of the above measured parameters is shown
in Figure 3. The energy absorbed was dependent on
the tempering treatment, and the 800~ tempering
provided the best impact energy values at all temper-
atures used in this study. The tearing slope showed a
temperature dependence, and the tearing was easier
during low temperature fracture processes than during
fracture at temperatures above the normal ductile-to-
brittle transition for the material (Fig. 4). Further, the
tearing slope was also influenced by the tempering
treatment and there was an increasing tendency for the
slope to be higher at the higher tempering tempera-
tures (Fig. 5).
DISCUSSION
The tensile properties showed no significant changes
except in the yield and ultimate strengths as the tem-
pering temperature was raised from 500~ to 800 ~F.
The fracture surfaces also did not appear to be sig-
nificantly different and were typically in the form of
a cup and .cone, a characteristic of ductile fracture.
The tensile properties (which are basically slow strain
rate tests) do not magnify the microstructural effects,
 Terrell et al. 9 H e a t T r e a t m e n t Effects o n A S T M A 5 8 8

Fig. 1. Microstructures of A588 plate: (a) as received; (b) 500~ temper; (c) 650~ temper; (d) 800~ temper.

140 ~3&o~302
120 i 6
I[[3 AS-RECEIVED
I00
. ee.O 9t9 9.20-7
80 I [ [ ] 5 0 0 ~ TEMPER

60 I r 1 6 5 0 ~ TEMPER
40
9 8 0 0 * F TEMPER
20

0 YIELD STRENGTH (ksi) ULTIMATE STRENGTH(ksi}

62.0
60 . 54.9 575 Im

30 30 29 27 25.6

HARDNESS (Rc ) REDUCTIONIN AREA (%1 ELONGATION

(%)

Fig. 2. Effect of heat treatment on mechanical properties of ASTM A588 grade B

steel. Heat treated samples were oil quenched from 1550~

J. Heat Treating, Vol. 5, No. 1, 1987 9 23

 Terrell et al. 9 H e a t T r e a t m e n t Effects o n A S T M A 5 8 8

8 0 0 OF TEMP.
5.5
~
5.0 - - ' - - 6 5 0 * F TEMP.
.> TEARING SLOPE = {dP/dt)
lo / ......... AS-RECEIVED
t
1/)
ENERGY
2- t~ 2.1
(J
t'~ a:
< o 0.6
rr u_ 0 . 0
0
/ W
P), ~ [ t ~ LOAD Z
W
[
0.0 0.62
TIME (msec.) Fig. 5. Typical temperature dependence of tearing slope for
ASTM A588 grade B steel.
Fig. 3. Schematic illustration of typical load/time and en-
ergy/time traces illustrating the tearing slope (dP/dt).
which provided detailed information on the character-
istics of the fracture processes during dynamic load-
A: QUENCH, 800*F TEMPER
B: QUENCH, 6 5 0 " F TEMPER ing. Considering the load/time trace, it can be as-
90
C: AS- RECEIVED sumed that until the yield point is reached, tempering
exerts a negligible effect on the properties of the ma-
80
terial. However, as soon as the maximum load is
reached, crack initiation begins to occur in materials
70 of all tempers, and can be directly correlated with the
microstructure. T h e energy that is used for crack nu-
cleation in the as-received sample is probably lower
due to the inherent microstructure of the as-received
material.
The energy associated with a fracture process is di-
40 N rectly related to the brittle or ductile nature of the ma-
terial. Previous investigators [3] have shown that the
3o load/time traces from an impact test can also indicate
the fracture morphology. It would be reasonable to
2o suggest that the energy required for interfacial sepa-
ration in brittle materials would be much lower than
IO that for ductile materials. Thus, the load/time traces
should show a steeper fall in load after crack initiation
I I I I I I I I I I and therefore lower tearing slopes for the brittle mi-
-400 -300 -200 -I00 0 lO0
crostructures. However, in this study the reverse sit-
TEMPERATURE uation was observed, and this observation can be ra-
[*F] tionalized through the hypothesis of multiple cracks
Fig. 4. Temperature dependence of tearing slope. initiating at the same time. The high impact velocities
associated with these tests coupled with the notch root
and therefore are unable to allow a designer to predict radius enhances the possibility for multiple crack ini-
conservative values as is often permitted by the dy- tiation.
namic tests. Thus, it was necessary to conduct Charpy The process zone in a material represents a region
impact tests on samples heat treated to different tem- immediately surrounding the crack tip where the local
pering temperatures. fracture processes are beginning to take place. The size
The instrumented impact machine has been previ- of the process zone in a material is a function of the
ously used by several investigators to study the dy- tempering temperature and is related to the crack ini-
namic fracture behavior of steels. [1-5] The impact tests, tiation characteristics of the material. For a given test
performed on samples tempered at 800~ yielded the temperature, the process zone size will vary consid-
highest values for absorbed energy for the range of erably with the microstructure. The as-received mi-
test temperatures used in this study. These results are crostructure consisting of large grains of ferrite and
reinforced by the load/time and energy/time traces pearlite will process a higher ductile-to-brittle transi-

24 9 J. Heat Treating, Vol. 5, No. 1, 1987

 Terrell et al. 9 H e a t T r e a t m e n t Effects o n A S T M A 5 8 8

tion and will have a larger process zone size than for
a quenched and tempered microstructure consisting of
fine grains of bainite. The large degree of strain lo-
calization which occurs in the smaller process zone
lowers the probability for multiple crack initiation. On
the other hand, the large process zone allows strain to
be distributed over a larger area ahead of the notch,
which implies that multiple crack initiation is more
likely in such a large process zones.
After the crack initiation process is completed, the
remaining energy in the hammer is available for the
propagation of cracks. For a given temperature, the
initial tearing slope obtained from the load/time trace
for the quenched and tempered steels was found to be
steeper than that for the as-received steel. It is pos- Fig. 6. Scanning fractograph of as-received impact sample
tulated that the tearing slope is not a measure of the tested at -100~ showing transangular cleavage.
rate of energy release for any given crack, but a mea-
sure of the degree of multiple initiation, and therefore
the ease of interfacial separation under conditions of
dynamic loading.
Having postulated that multiple crack initiation ap-
pears more likely in a metal having a larger process
zone size, it would be reasonable to suggest that more
cracks will participate in the early stages of propa-
gation. Thus, the initial tearing slope will be steeper
because the overall length of crack being formed is
longer than under conditions of single initiation. As
cracks propagate, they eventually coalesce into a ma-
jor crack front, and this is reflected in the gradual de-
crease of the tearing slope (Fig. 5). Such observations
are confirmed through the scanning microscope frac-
tographs which showed that the as-received samples
Fig. 7. Scanning fractograph of impact sample tempered at
exhibited a totally transgranular cleavage mode (Fig.
800~ and tested at -100~ showing transangular cleavage
6), unlike the tempered samples where regions of mi- and adjoining areas of microvoid coalescence.
crovoid coalescence were found adjoining regions of
transgranular cleavage (Fig. 7).
This can be interpreted as several cracks initiating
ductility was manifest in the form of multiple crack
as transgranular cleavage and coalescing together
initiation in the material.
through intermediate regions of ductile fracture in the
form of microvoid coalescence.
REFERENCES
SUMMARY 1. Rapid Inexpensive Tests for Determining Fracture
This study has shown that the instrumented impact Toughness, NMAB, National Academy of Sciences,
machine can provide useful information on relating the 1976, pp. 105-159.
2. D.R. Ireland, Instrumented Impact Testing, ASTM STP
mechanical behavior of any material to its microstruc-
563, 1974, pp. 3-29.
ture and fracture morphology. The results of the ten- 3. K.N. Murty, N.K. Rao, and H. Krishnan, Engineering
sile and charpy impact studies also provided infor- Fracture Mechanics, Vol 18, No. 6, 1983, pp. 1173-
mation on the basic mechanical properties that can be 1184.
derived through heat treatment of A588 steels. A phe- 4. K.E. Stahlkopf, R.E. Smith, W.L. Server, and R.A.
nomenological description of the fracture process was Wullaert, ASTM STP601, 1976, pp. 291-301.
also attempted and it was postulated that the increased 5. R.A. Wullaert, ASTM STP466, 1970, pp. 148-164.

J. Heat Treating, Vol. 5, No. 1, 1987 9 25